Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Daisuke Matsuzaka officially signed his minor-league contract with the Indians on Wednesday and—if a Tweet by MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian is accurate—appeared to fire a shot across the Red Sox bow:

One reason Dice-K picked the Indians? They’re in the AL. “I want to pitch against Boston,” he said through interpreter Jeff Cutler.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) February 13, 2013

Really? You went 17-22 with a 5.53 ERA in 56 artless, torturous appearances from 2009 to today. This, somehow, is the Red Sox’ fault? You feel the need for vengeance against the Red Sox for paying you $37 million over the last four years when you compiled those putrid numbers in that excruciating manner?

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Awesome. As a Sox fan, I look forward to watching you work for 5 innings, whilst throwing 113 pitches, 58 of which will be strikes, issuing 5BB, striking out 6 whilst giving up 4 runs. Hopefully it will be the first game of a 3 game set, that way you can burn your pen for that game and then the Sox can beat up on the pen for the next 2 games. Yes, I look forward to this.

If he really really thinks that the medical and pitching staffs in Boston put him in a bad spot, he might be motivated to show them what he can do, if the Indians use him the way he thinks he should be used.

"Well, so far, so good", sez Hank, as A-Rod passes the 50th floor in front of the Empire State Building on his way to the sidewalk. But in the meantime, that Dice-K guy made one hell of a sidewalk omelette.

They had him pitching with his arm hanging off his elbow in 2011 and barely touching 87 mph, and then rushed him back way too early from TJ surgery. He was also reported to have been unhappy with them tinkering over his preparations between starts, ST, offseason, etc.

So maybe he feels they messed him up and then abused him a bit. I don't know, just guessing.

Of course, maybe he just loves Boston, Fenway and the fans and wants a chance to come back again, even on another team.

They had him pitching with his arm hanging off his elbow in 2011 and barely touching 87 mph, and then rushed him back way too early from TJ surgery. He was also reported to have been unhappy with them tinkering over his preparations between starts, ST, offseason, etc.

Which makes the Indians (and Terry Francona) such an odd choice. Maybe it was the only option but it never seemed like he and Tito had a great relationship.

I'm rooting for Daisuke though. I like him and when he was on I thought he was fun to watch pitch. When he first came over he had a pretty good mix of pitches, reminiscent of Pedro though not nearly as good. Maybe Oil Can Boyd would be a better comp. For some reason he got away from that very quickly and seemed to throw 99% fastballs/cutters to his detriment.

I also have no problems with the comment here. I imagine most players when they leave one team want to show that team that they made a mistake. In his final start as a Red Sox he got pounded in the Bronx and he became visibly emotional leaving the mound. I think he genuinely wanted to succeed in Boston.

I suppose if the Red Sox were located in a coastal town filled with nothing but wealthy Japanese retirees who only got interested in going to games that featured teams with Japanese superstars, the added attendance might have made the contract worth it. Or maybe if the Red Sox didn't have to share the money they made in Japan from selling Dice-K jerseys.

I feel like this is reading a lot of hostility into a pretty tame and context-less remark. I remember when I used to pitch in Little League and Babe Ruth always thinking that I wish I had the chance to pitch a game against my teammates, but that was never going to happen. Daisuke is admittedly not a Little Leaguer [INSERT JOKE], but that could be all that he's really thinking here.